Safety Centred Practice in Child Protection - An Introduction

This 2-day course provides participants with an introduction to Safety Centred Practice.
Family and Safety-Centred Practice is safety-focused and family-centred approach to child protection assessment and planning. Family and Safety-Centred Practice (FSCP) integrates a number of practice approaches and methodologies including the Signs of Safety approach, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Strengths-Based practice, Family- Centred practice, the Resolutions Approach, Collaborative Helping, Motivational Interviewing, Family Group Decision-Making, Appreciative Inquiry and more.

FSCP is designed to help all the key stakeholders involved with a child – the parents, the extended family, the child protection worker, supervisors and managers, lawyers, judges and other court officials, even the child him/herself – to keep a clear focus on assessing and enhancing child safety at all points in the case process. It is organised around a comprehensive assessment and planning framework that is developed collaboratively with children, families and their extended networks. This collaborative assessment process provides the focus for the family, professionals and network to then work together to develop and implement detailed safety plans that describe the day-to-day changes that families and their networks will put in place to ensure the enduring safety of the children.

Family and Safety-Centred Practice also integrates an approach to ongoing learning and development that emphasizes the importance of action learning, reflective practice, appreciative inquiry and quality supervision to support skill development and to elicit and deepen existing good practice.

Learning Outcomes:

What is Family Safety Centred Practice? Family and Safety Centred Practice (FSCP) integrates a number of innovative practice approaches methodologies including strengths based solution focused engagement with families.

What are the key messages for caseworkers and managers of casework? FSCP is not another new system for caseworkers to learn. It is a set of resources to support:

• Improved engagement with families when discussing safety and risk issues
• Case and safety planning both immediate and long term

When do we use FSCP? FSCP can be used along the casework spectrum to engage families and help inform the information gathering process.

How does FSCP work? FSCP is designed to help all the key stakeholders involved with a child, keep a clear focus on assessing and enhancing child safety at all points in the case planning process.

Why do we need FSCP? Family preservation and restoration casework requires family engagement in the safety planning process. The FSCP resources support caseworkers in effective practice with families, the use of SDM tools and case planning because they encourage family involvement in the preservation and restoration process. The FSCP resources provide families with a way to participate and contribute to positive building outcomes.

Who should attend?

Case workers, case managers and support workers working in government and non-government organisations with child protection service delivery responsibilities